We’ve had some heated debates on the topic of hands-on defibrillation (HOD) for the past few years. We all know the most important time to avoid a pause during CPR is the perishock pause ((21690495)). We also know that despite lots of safety data ((2302275), (19211180)) and safe experience doing HOD ((18458166), Johnson) there are still concerns over the potential electrical leak using common exam gloves ((22925991), (23507464), (23507465), (23266533), (24992873)). For those who don’t enjoy a little electrical spice in your resuscitations, some recent articles have shown ways in which the safety of HOD can be mitigated using inexpensive tools.

Protective Equipment Makes Hands-On Defibrillation Safe

Yu and colleagues (19962817) used a resuscitation blanket in an animal model of 15 pigs to demonstrate the protection from electrical current during the HOD time. The resuscitation blanket is made from light weight insulating materials which have stable physical characteristics, such as high dielectric strength and outstanding resistance to flame. Even at levels of 360J (well beyond what most use) it was deemed to protect providers against dangerous levels of electricity.

Just recently, Deakin and colleagues (25725295) did a study, taking patients requiring elective cardioversion and performed 82 hands on cardioversions wearing Class I electrical gloves similar to that worn by professional electricians. They used a scale to ensure 20kg of pressure on the chest and had the pads placed in an anterior posterior placement. They placed electrodes on the chest near the pads and then attached them to the provider with a resistor to measure the possible scenario of a patient/provider contact during cardioversion. The peak levels of energy transfer fell well below the industry safety standard of 1 milliamp. The conclusion of the author and this reviewer is that there should be no reason we should need to pause compressions for defibrillation when wearing the proper protective equipment. Go get your gloves on!

Great article and references Dr. Weiters! Made me wonder, do you know if anybody has tried the Zoll ResQPump with hands on defib? I imagine they’re gonna be a lot cheaper than mechanical CPR and with ACD-CPR they might be better than gloves alone. If it doesn’t conduct the shock, it might be the best way to do hands on defib.

No studies have been done to date that I am aware of looking at the Zoll ResQPump with hands on defib. Also no study to date has shown improved neuro outcomes with mechanical CPR and you are correct…very expensive.

Appreciate you reading the post and love the comment/questions. Hopefully I was able to answer them for you here.